Mother charged with abuse of 3-year-old daughter

A mother is charged in Jasper County with a case of severe child abuse.

24-year-old Celia M. Lara-Licon is being held without bond in Jasper County. She’s charged with two counts of 1st degree domestic assault, 2 counts of child abuse and 1 count of child endangerment.

Lara-Licon was arrested March 4th after a Missouri Dept of Social Services and Joplin Police Department investigation.

Her 3-year-old daughter was brought to a hospital suffering from malnutrition, fractures to nine bones, severe dehydration and kidney failure.

According to an affidavit filed in the case, the girl was flown to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, where she was treated in the pediatric intensive care unit due to the severity of her condition.

She was additionally diagnosed with laceration of her pancreas and pancreatitis caused by blunt force trauma to her abdomen.

The affidavit says a physician specialist classified the alleged abuse as “child torture.”